The Value of the Crooked Tree

Once, a carpenter went into the forest to find wood for his next project.

He saw a tall old tree — crooked, with rough bark and twisted branches. “This tree is useless,”

he said. “Its wood isn’t straight enough to cut.” So he walked away

and cut down younger, smoother trees instead. Days later, a big storm came. All the straight

young trees were broken and blown away by the wind. But the old crooked tree stood tall

and unharmed. The carpenter looked at it again and thought, > “What I called

useless has survived. Maybe everything has its own purpose.”